19> Low Carb – High Fat – Some Thoughts

If you follow the posts on the MH TNT Forum, then you have heard the Mantra that TNT is a High Fat – Low Carb – Normal Protein. I wonder if this is an actual statement of fact. So, contrary to my normal way of thinking, I am going to “Do the Math.”

Based upon the various methods of determining what caloric intake I need to maintain my weight – I have come up with an average of 2,600 calories a day assuming 180 pounds. I am rounding all over the place to make this easy.

Protein: If you are exercising – and I am, you should be eating somewhere around 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. There is a lot of discussion on this – but I believe that this is an acceptable measure for workout 6 days a week. So 180 grams @ 4 calories a gram = 720 calories a day. This should be your basic protein intake if you are going to maintain or gain muscle mass.

Carbs: Eating Low Carb – Plan A, you average between 25-75 grams a day – 90% from veggies. Let us take the average, 50 grams @ 4 calories a gram = 200 calories from Carbs. You are not going to increase this at the start of your diet. Adam Campbell said that he is always eating Plan A, except when he is not. Plan A is the foundation upon which all else is built.

Fats: All of the rest of my calories should come from Fats. So: 2600 – (720+200) = 1,680 calories a day from Fat, which @ 9 calories a gram = 187 grams.

If I wanted a 500 calorie a day Caloric Deficit to lose 1 pound per week where would I take this from. I can not take it from the Carbs since eating less than 50 grams of Carbs a day over a week is tough – especially if you are on Plan B where you are adding 60 +/- grams of Carbs 3 times a week. I can not take it away from Protein since I am exercising and want to maintain my Protein intake. I can only take it away from the Fat column. So I end up with Protein – 720, Carbs – 200, Fats – 1180, or a ratio of 34% – 10% – 56%.

Where is all this Fat coming from. I posit the following: The Fat that we are eating as part of the TNT lifestyle is not Fat that is added to your diet but that is merely not artificially eliminated from the natural foods we eat.

Looking at every food on the shelf and comparing the full fat with the low fat version, what you find is that for every gram of fat that is taken out – 1.5 grams of Carbs are added in order to get a 1/3 reduction in calories. Starting with a full fat product with 6 grams of Fat: remove 3 grams of Fat or 27 calories and add 4.5 grams of Carbs or 18 calories, and you have a one-third reduction in calories and 50% less Fat. Read the labels and you will note that all of the added Carbs come from HFCS or related sugars.

By not artifically eliminating Fats and by not artifically adding Carbs, we come close to a Low Carb – High Fat diet. End result – the TNT diet is closer to a natural diet. This is especially true if you maintain the further concepts of Clean Eating and Whole Foods, which is nothing more than the elimination of highly processed foods from your diet.

Over the past 30 plus years, highly processed Carbs have become a staple of our diet. They slowly snuck in under the guise of Low Fat eating. Now the food industry is attempting to do the same with Low Carb eating by the addition of Sugar Alcohols and other highly processed foods.

I explore why it was so easy for me to adopt this lifestyle in the next Chapter J – “Going Home.” I merely stopped eating Low Fat and went back to eating “Normal” but absent the Carbs.